Description

The cave occasionally has a waterfall that fills up the bowl at the base, hence the name.

There are now more than 10 routes at the cave and to the right, from 5.9 to 5.hard. Left of the cave, in the trees, are some 10/11s, and some harder routes further left (perhaps a dozen or so routes). Not much is known about these lines yet, except that Luke Laeser and Co. put in a handful, and the rock looks really good, for the most part.

There are a handful of quality lines here. Right of the Punchbowl are a number of routes. Corporate Greed is a short, fun 5.9, ****. I've heard tell Spiked Punch (12c, ****) is a classic, I think Drive by Shooting (11d/12a, ****) is definitely a worthy route. Turds in the Punchbowl (12a, **) is worth getting on for the stiff crux up high. Several (relatively) new routes can be found by following the trail around the corner to the right of Turds.

Smoke on the Water (11c, ****) starts on the left side of the cave and is super fun, with a finish that arcs right over the top of the cave.

There are a two bolted lines on the right arch of the cave that look really hard. According to the 2008 Guidebook from Wolverine Publishing, these are 13c & 13d.

Getting There

At the end of the east access road, there is a trail that takes you directly to the Punchbowl, with a quick approach. This is the obvious cave.

I was wondering who bolted the unnamed (I assume) projects, if anyone knows. There is a line a few yards to the right of Super Barnacle that climbs out the left side of the cave to the face above it. Also, I got on the unnamed #3 route. It was absolutely amazing. Maybe the best climb I've ever been on, albeit incredible dirty with loose rock the entire way up. It needs to see a great deal more traffic before it will be worthy of judging an accurate grade, since it could get easier or harder. However, things being as they were, I felt like the climb weighed in around 5.13c. I did hang nearly every bolt, though I pulled every move.

I checked out Lime Creek sometime in the late 1990s with Dan Howley (now of the Spot Gym) and those 13s in the cave were already bolted and presumably climbed. As I recall, Pete Zoller was supposed to have established those lines. You might ask him or people who know him what the names are.